{"nrhp_refnum":"10000093","name":"Sibley's and James Store Historic District","other_names":["Sibley Bros. General Store","Old Thomas James Store"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"239 Main St. (Main and Maple Sts.)","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mathews","county":"Mathews County","state":"VA","lat":37.43553794400003,"lon":-76.32029861199999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-03-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small commercial historic district at 239 Main Street in downtown Mathews, Mathews County, Virginia, made up of three general-store buildings built between about 1810 and 1899. Two of them are joined by a hyphen and counted as one building.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the buildings show the evolution of rural commercial architecture in Mathews over about 200 years. The c.1810 Old Thomas James Store is an early example of a southern country store with surviving framing and interior evidence. The district also reflects the role of general stores and storekeepers in the county's economic and social life.","narrative":"Three commercial buildings on a lot of under half an acre in downtown Mathews, Virginia, make up this small district. The oldest is the Old Thomas James Store, built about 1810, a one-story front-gabled frame building of roughly 15 by 25 feet. It has pit-sawn and hewn timbers, machine-cut nails, and traces of a retail room and counting room. It was probably moved from its original position facing Main Street. Behind Sibley's is a c.1840 one-story frame building with a full attic, joined to it by a later hyphen. Sibley's General Store, built in 1899, is a two-and-a-half story folk Victorian building with a full front porch and decorative wood shingles at the eaves. Together the buildings illustrate how rural stores changed over two centuries. They also reflect the part country stores and storekeepers played in Mathews, a county tied to the sea, whose slow growth helped preserve its rural village character.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Victorian; 19th-century Antebellum Store","criteria":[],"status_note":"Current functions are listed as museum (visitor's center) and vacant/not in use. The c.1840 building is used only for storage, being uninsulated and unheated.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.514979-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/6818/41681897/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/10000093.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000093/279110903f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000093/279110903f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sibley%27s_and_James_Store_HD.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sibley%27s_and_James_Store_HD.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681897","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibley%27s_and_James_Store_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713204"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/mathews-county/sibleys-and-james-store-historic-district-10000093/"}